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Saturday, June 30, 2012

Hey everyone! Welcome to Summer! Here in the midwest where I live we are dealing with record high heat and dry weather. My solution to beating the heat is staying inside and crafting the day away! If you are beating the heat like me, you will love all of the fabulous inspiration I have to share with you today. These projects are by our amazing design team and are things they featured on their own blogs this month.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Hi everyone! It's Trisha here with a fun little tag featuring some of my favourite Sizzix dies and Prima papers and embellishmentsfrom the Nature Garden Collection. Read along to see just how easy creating a tag like this actually is!

To start, I used the Sewing Room die to die cut a 5X6 piece of heavyweight chipboard Bazzill). I also cut a 2"X4" piece of Natural Sticky Back Canvas by Ranger. Cut the stand off the chipboard. Trim off any excess Sticky Back Canvas from this piece so that it is simply the "body" of the dress form.

Using an Ink Blending Tool, apply a combination of Old Paper and Tattered Rose Distress Inks to the stamped dress form.

Next, we are going to do some more die cutting. When doing this, I often like to cut multiple pieces of patterned paper at a single sitting. This allows me the flexibility to change things up as I am designing if need be. SO to start, I made sure to hang on to the spool and button left from when I die cut the dress form (all pieces are on the Sewing Room die). I also cut a few hearts from both sizes of the Movers and Shapers Mini Heart die.

Next up is the Tag and Bookplate die. Note that I also cut a few different papers to allow for more variety.

Once I had all of my die cutting finished, it was time to get to work assembling this vintage style tag. First, I applies Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink to all chipboard pieces using my Foam Blending Tool.

Once the ink was dry, peel off liner on canvas piece and attach to chipboard. I do allow a few minutes for it to dry... even though it does not feel wet, I find the Sticky Back Canvas adheres better when I allow a few minutes. I should also mention that this dress form shape is NOT symmetrical therefore, it may be a wise idea to make sure you are inking the right side of the chipboard so that when you attach the pieces together they line up correctly! Apply a bit of Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink LIGHTLY around the edges. We are basically just adding a shadow... not grunging it up too heavily.

The, we will glue the stand onto the back of the dress form. This shortens it of course but also adds a bit of extra dimension to the completed piece.

Add a small piece of Prima lace (or any lace for that matter) around the waist by gluing the ends around the backside of the dress form.

Now to assemble the tag. I will note that all pieces of paper were slightly inked with Old Paper and Tattered Rose Distress Inks prior to attaching them. Start by gluing a reinforcer shape to the top of the tag. Attach the Distressed Doily piece along the left edge of the tag. Layer with a strip of lace and a 1/2" strip of paper from the same "Nature Garden" Collection pack by Prima. Use foam squares to pop up the dress form over towards the left edge of the tag.

Tie a piece of May Arts ribbon through the hole and use bakers twine to attach the chipboard button die cut shape. Notch the ends of the ribbon.

Finally, attach a center of the bookplate die to the right of the dress form ensuring there will be enough space for the bookplate itself. Attach the Prima metal locket with a jump ring to the top hole of the book plate. Use foam squares to pop up a book plate die cut in a contrasting pattern into position.

Embellish the book plate with Prima Charme Roses. Attach a small piece of Prima trim across the bottom of the tag.

It really IS that easy! I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and would love to see what you do with your choice of papers! I am looking forward to recreating this tag myself with the other papers I cut at the same time and I will undoubtedly achieve tags that look completely different just by changing up the papers!

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Tim Holtz Stamp2Cut for the eclips machine if finally in stores and I am so excited! I am a huge fan of Tim's stamps and absolutely love the detailed cutting I can get for his stamp images using my eclips with Stamp2Cut. I have always been pretty handy with a craft knife but the detailed cutting that is possible with Stamp2Cut blows me away. I think this tag really demonstrates the detail well.

On this tag, the boat image was stamped on plain cardstock and colored before being cut with my eclips. I love how the boat is cut out perfectly right down to the thin wires and poles.

And the text, can you imagine trying to cut this text out with a craft knife or pair of scissors? There is no way! It is so easy with the eclips and Stamp2Cut, it literally took seconds to cut it.

To embellish my tag, I also stamped, colored, and cut the document images from the stamp set. To make it quick, I stamped all of my images on one piece of cardstock, colored them, made my registration marks for each stamped image, applied the cardstock to my cutting mat, loaded the mat into my eclips and then each image. Once each piece was cut, I inked the edges of the pieces and adhered them to my prepared tag. So seriously quick and easy!

After embossing the design, I removed the tag from the folder and rubbed black archival ink along the edges and raised areas of the design to highlight them. It is such an easy technique that gives a great look to all types of projects.

I can't wait to start seeing more projects online of featuring the Stamp2Cut system. If you have any, I would love for you to share them in our Sizzix Flickr gallery for an upcoming edition of our I Spy Saturday!

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Hello! Tammy Tutterow here with you today to share with you some quick and simple cards I made featuring the new Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers Vintage Clock, Vintage Fan, Vintage Globe, and Vintage Typewriter.

For these cards, I wanted to create something simple and quick that followed a formula. I used a blank white pre-made card with piece of cardstock matted on manila cardstock in the lower corner. On each piece of cardstock I added a die cut element and stamped sentiment.

To create my die cut elements, I applied metal foil tape over a piece of Grungeboard and then die cut using the selected Movers and Shapers die in a base tray. I then used a craft knife to cut the foil where I wanted to remove it, for instance, on this piece, I cut along the tops of the bells and around the frame near the hammer, hands, and feet. After cutting, I peeled away the foil in those places to expose the Grungeboard underneath. I colored the exposed Grungeboard with Distress Stains to color it as desired. For the mini clock, I added pattern paper to the back from the Tim Holtz Lost and Found Paper Stash which has paper that is sized just right for both the mini and large Vintage Clock dies.

On each card, I inked the edge of the white card with Black Soot Distress Ink. I inked the two layers of cardstock with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. For the mini fan, I die cut a number 1 from the Cargo Stencil Numbers set from Grungeboard. After coloring the piece with Distress Stain and drying it, I added a layer of Glossy Accents to make it shiny.

On the globe, I removed the foil from the globe area. I removed the land shape from the die cut and set it aside which coloring the water area with Distress Stain. After the stain was dry, I added a layer of Glossy Accents to make it shiny. I die cut an extra land section from manila cardstock. After coloring it with ink I adhered it to the matching Grungeboard piece. After the Glossy Accents was dry, I placed the land piece back in place. It fit in like a jigsaw puzzle piece.

On the typewriter I punched out the small pieces and set them aside. I cut the foil along the edges of the body of the typewriter by the levers. I colored the typewriter black with Distress Stain. After it was dry, I applied Glossy Accents. After the Glossy Accents was dry, I put the small pieces back in place.

I love how quick and easy these cards were to make! The mini shapes have so many possibilities for so many different types of cards and notes like these.